Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said in a blog post that the government had not waived the loans granted to major defaulters. He accused the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of taking no action against loan defaulters.

“Over the last few days, a rumour is being propagated regarding waiver of loans of capitalists by banks,” Jaitley wrote in his blog. “Between the years 2008 and 2014, public sector banks disbursed disproportionate sums of loans to several industries. The public needs to ask the rumour mongers at whose behest or under whose pressure were such loans disbursed.”

Jaitley claimed that the previous government had kept such defaulters as non-Non Performing Asset account holders rather than take a firm decision against them. He said that by restructuring the loans, the losses caused to banks were kept hidden.

The finance minister said that contrary to waiving capitalists’ loans, the present government has brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. This law had barred debtors
who defaulted on bank loans from participating in the business of companies that they ran into the ground, Jaitley said.

The finance minister added that cases had been filed with the National Company Law Tribunal for early recovery of loans from 12 of the largest defaulters in the country.